UH Manoa RecycleMania will build mountain of recyclables

UH Mānoa will kick off RecycleMania 2008 on Friday by building a mountain of recyclables on the lawn fronting Hawai‘i Hall as part of a nationwide competition among college campuses. The event is intended to spur environmental awareness among students, and inspire increased recycling practices on and off campus.

The RecycleMania Launch Party on Friday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. will encourage UH Mānoa students, faculty, and staff to build a mountain of recyclables - including plastic, glass, aluminum, paper, and cardboard - while enjoying vegetarian BBQ provided by UHM‘s Sustainable Saunders and music provided by KTUH.

UH Mānoa "RecycleManiacs" will compete with an estimated 400 other colleges over a 10-week period (January 27 to April 5) in contests to reduce, reuse and recycle the most campus waste. This is the second year that UH Mānoa is participating in the event.

"Last year‘s RecycleMania program is what really got UH recycling off the ground," says Roxanne Adams, Landscape Manager and director of recycling for UH Mānoa.

"RecycleMania is awesome because not only are we saving the planet, we‘re also setting a great example and making money for our clubs at the same time," agrees student Erin Miller, president of the UH Mānoa Geology Club and among the first to champion recycling within UHM‘s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology.

Last year‘s national competition collected an astonishing 41.3 million pounds of recyclables from over 200 colleges and universities across the country. The total amount of recyclables and organic materials recovered prevented the release of 15,583 metric tons of carbon equivalent (MTCE). In real world terms, this reduction in green house gases is equivalent to eliminating one year‘s impact of 12,367 passenger cars; electric generation to power 7,335 households; or the consumption of 6.5 million gallons of gasoline.

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RecycleMania was launched in 2001 as a friendly challenge between Ohio University and Miami University to increase recycling on their campuses. The contest has expanded rapidly in six years‘ time from two schools in 2001 to 201 colleges and universities in 2007 spanning 42 states and the District of Columbia. Over a 10-week period, campuses compete to collect the largest amount of recyclables per capita, the largest amount of total recyclables, the least amount of trash per capita, or have the highest recycling rate.For more information, visit the RecycleMania website at www.recyclemaniacs.org and the new MySpace site.